Students told leaders they plan to participate in March for Our Lives events in Cincinnati and Washington

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Updated: 10:06 PM EDT Mar 20, 2018

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Students talk tough to Cincinnati leaders about gun violence

Students told leaders they plan to participate in March for Our Lives events in Cincinnati and Washington

The teens came face to face with leaders from across Cincinnati and demanded they do something about the prevalence of schooling shootings, including the most recent one in Maryland.

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"I shouldn't have to feel like every time I come to school, I'm in a war zone," student Mariah Crawley said.

Students wore their hearts on their sleeves as they talked tough about gun violence to leaders at City Hall.

"When you choose to honor the Second Amendment with semi-automatic weapons, welcome to any person as protection, you choose to put every one of us at risk," said another student.

One of the speakers was a 2009 graduate of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, where 17 died in a mass shooting last month.

"You don't expect to get a text from your mom to your brother and your sister saying there's been a shooting at your high school," the man said.

In attendance at the forum in Council Chambers were superintendents, school board members, police officers and council members.

"There are a lot of things that the people sitting up here can do as well, as we can all be advocates with you all towards lawmakers and policymakers at the federal level," Councilman P.G. Sittenfeld said.

The students had the leaders' attention and demanded change to stop gun violence everywhere.

"I am an optimist but also a realist. I am not ignorant to the fact that the journey and road to a future without gun violence is going to be a long, extremely heated and very passionate one from both sides," student Emma Jackson said.

They're young but determined, and they want to see those in power do something with the authority they've been given.

"I am not willing to wear this bulletproof vest as a part of my school uniform," student Kelly Helton said.

Several of the students told leaders they plan to participate in the March for Our Lives event this weekend in Cincinnati, and some said they will also make the trip to Washington, D.C., for the march there on the same day.